Sport Compact Drags

Just watched a piece on the tube showing sport compact drag racing at Moroso, Palm Beach. Has quite a few FAST cars, 7, 8, 9 seconds. I couldn't help but notice a few things- these were the worst drivers I have ever seen at a high end race. One guy had an et in the high 8's, but a reaction time over 1 second. Done this before, Jose? The camera mounted behind the starting line showed cars all over the track. Nobody hit the wall, but some real close call. A lot of "Catastrophic Failures" at the starting line. A few more down the strip. It was interesting that the drivers were almost exclusively Hispanic. Some from New York, some from Puerto Rico, most from SoFla. One Black driver from Miami, probably the oldest driver at ~45yo. Also he had the oldest car, an '82 Toyota running mid 8's, well driven. Did well in the interview. Got his championship. It worries me- this is not going to go well if they are putting inexperienced drivers in cars this fast. Discuss.

I'm old school about drag racing. Until someone figures out how to get a FWD car to do a wheelstand, drags should be reserved for RWD cars. Now I have to go put on my firesuit..

In reply to NYG95GA:

I'm with you, I love import drag racing but FWD is just wrong.

The old Datsuns and Toyotas kick ass.

Shawn

What, exactly, is going to go badly? There's crappy drivers in fast cars at every dragstrip in the land, racing every weekend of the year. Has "it" gone badly yet?

NYG95GA wrote: I'm old school about drag racing. Until someone figures out how to get a FWD car to do a wheelstand, drags should be reserved for RWD cars. Now I have to go put on my firesuit..

hhrrmmmm...FWD is not as fun to watch, but you gotta start somewhere. And until youve seen a carbon clad, 500 hp WRX launch, youve not really given spocom drag racing a fighting chance.

I have been to local drag races all over he Eastern side of the country over 40 years. Nationals once. I have never before seen so many bad drivers in fast cars. By bad things, I mean collisions, over the wall stuff. Things that the media will be on like a bad rash.

In reply to cwh:

I think I have noticed that the super light high reving FWD cars are as squirrel as hell with all the POWA going through the front wheels. God bless em, but drag racing really is much more fun to watch when the rear tires are burning up. To tell you the truth, as wonderfully as the AWD cars squat and scoot, I find that extra superbly boring. All from spectator perspective.

I think the "all over the place" thing has more to do with being FWD than inexperience. When your tires that steer are spinning - no directional traction - heck yes it'll be all over the place. Put an old-school driver in a FWD car and it'll be the same.

There seems to be more than a trace of the "us vs. them" thing going on when it comes to RWD vs. FWD drag cars. Thankfully, an impersonal timing light doesn't care if it's RWD, AWD, or FWD, the fasting car wins.

Shaun wrote: ...To tell you the truth, as wonderfully as the AWD cars squat and scoot, I find that extra superbly boring. All from spectator perspective.

Much like F1, which would be MUCH more exciting to watch if they removed the aero and made everyone use 185/60-13 tires!

to me sport compact drag racing is the best drag racing. it's a spec series, it has multiple nameplates, and it has cars that kinda look like the real thing. but than again it is still drag racing.

nhra should make a series that has multiple engine classes, fwd and rwd classes, and cars that are in some way like real cars. a speed world challenge of drag racing. but than again it would still be drag racing.

i think they should put a line of cones down the middle of the strip. a drag race slalom. now that would be fun!

gmdmsolstice wrote: i think they should put a line of cones down the middle of the strip. a drag race slalom. now that would be fun!

They have this, it's called ProSolo.

http://www.scca.com/contentpage.aspx?content=57

those dudes with the slow reaction times (your probably refering to chris miller, in the camo civic) were basically worrying about other things, and reaction times DONT MATTER if your trying to set world records (which many of them did)

unbelieveable event. did some CRAZY stuff, etc. lots of awesome runs, and some records busted.

FWD cars are some of the hardest in the world to launch. with some of the guys running 1.4 60 fts, etc, the sport (import wise) has came a long way.

the "catastrophic failures" were usually transmissions, etc. they had a lot of down time it seems (from the coverage on other sites), but the track did a good job cleaning up.

meh....at our recent MAXUS meet (national meet for nissan maximas), a long-time maxima.org member, Jim, ran mid-10s in a 4th gen Maxima with a 3.5 engine swap (from the newer maximas) and nitrous (no TC/SC).

And Jim is a 50-something guy who grew up dragging muscle cars, as I recall. He did this just to be totally different. Alot of people make sport compacts and muscle cars fast. Not many people make FWD family sedans fast :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVs-38MDQrU

and he drove down to DC from Canada the day before with a weeks worth of traveling gear/luggage/tools, etc...IN THAT CAR.

In reply to irish44j:

i fricken LOVE jime's car. so simple, so effective . you forgot to mention its a factory AUTOMATIC, which for a RWD car is normal, but for FWDs, usually they blow up. not so with those VQ engines.

automatics do HIGHLY simplify the 1/4 mile and launch...haha

as i recall , that dude literally drag races every weekend, so hes got it dialed. so cool.

my brother is in the process of building a turbo setup for nealoc (from maxima.org), and they are shooting for low 10s. should be a wild car.

Speaking of FWD and drag racing fail....

Am i allowed to put a "wheelie bar" on my car for the GRM Challenge?

93celicaGT2 wrote: Speaking of FWD and drag racing fail.... Am i allowed to put a "wheelie bar" on my car for the GRM Challenge?

Hope so. We're planning on putting one together with a bed frame and shopping cart wheel(s.)

poopshovel wrote:

93celicaGT2 wrote: Speaking of FWD and drag racing fail.... Am i allowed to put a "wheelie bar" on my car for the GRM Challenge?

Hope so. We're planning on putting one together with a bed frame and shopping cart wheel(s.)

I was thinking some steel rods and some skateboard parts... I'm sure not going to get a good time spinning through 3rd gear. This way, i'll either go fast, or destroy a transmission.

I've only drag raced FWD, but it seemed easy enough to control. Of course, I was driving a classic Mini with an open diff and turned an 18.6, but how hard can it be?

Kidding. Not about the Mini, but I know from dyno testing that high-hp FWD cars are evil things. They're twitchy even on the rollers!

kb58 wrote:

Shaun wrote: ...To tell you the truth, as wonderfully as the AWD cars squat and scoot, I find that extra superbly boring. All from spectator perspective.

Much like F1, which would be MUCH more exciting to watch if they removed the aero and made everyone use 185/60-13 tires!

That's called Formula Vee and it is incredibly boring to watch (tons of fun to participate in, though!)

No, the 800 hp puts the excitement of F1 right back!

1000+hp through the front tires with no wheelie bars, you wouldn't be worrying about cutting a mean light either.